Unrealistic and crazy targets of winning 2016 Cosafa Castle Cup and beating Zimbabwe in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifiers are out of sight and beyond the reach of Malawi National Football Team under-fire coach, Ernest Mtawali.
Between now and the next Afcon home dead-rubber game against Swaziland in September decisions have to be made, and Football Association of Malawi (Fam) has never been the best when it comes to sound decisions on the national team.
After every disastrous campaign, the only thing that changes at Fam and the national team, is the identity of a coach. And with his one-year contract ending in August, Mtawali is surely facing the barrel.
Group B 3-0 and 1-0 wins over youthful Angola and Mauritius created illusions of a team that was gelling, having recovered from a damaging 3-0 loss in Zimbabwe to draw 0-0 against Namibia in a warm-up.
However, Thursday’s 1-0 loss to Lesotho provided a fresh reality check that this project called the Flames is still at ground zero.
Will Fam hire the caterpillar to demolish the foundation and start all over again?
The buck in football stops at the coach. On this respect, Mtawali’s record of five wins, six losses and four draws in all competitions is hardly inspiring. Plus the 1-0 over Uganda win in his interim capacity, it is six wins. Mtawali’s predecessor Young Chimodzi was in-charge 23 matches winning six, drawing five and losing 12.
Mtawali’s away record was not bad as he registered four draws, two losses having played in Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Swaziland, Guinea, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
The same cannot be said about the home performance of one win and one loss, excluding the 1-0 win he achieved in interim capacity after beating Uganda.
Mtawali just seems to be the right man who came at the wrong time when the nation was desperate for quick-fix solutions.
By giving him a one-year contract, Fam once again deceived itself into thinking that Malawi has quality players.
The Cosafa Cup exposed all those illusions for the most underperforming ones were the experienced legs. Apart from Esau Kanyenda and Atusaye Nyondo, there is no senior player who has not been given a chance to play for the Flames. But the results have been consistently poor.
The perceived gulf in quality between the seniors and juniors such as Miracle Gabeya, Dalitso Sailesi, Rafick Namwela, Stanley Sanudi and Gerald Phiri Jnr is imaginary.
In the final analysis, Mtawali will be remembered as a bold and single-minded coach who knew the solution for the underachieving team only to succumb to pressure for instant results and go back to the recycled players.
His inexperience was visible in the changing and chopping, especially of goalkeepers as he seemed to be dictated by public opinion in a country where everyone is a coach.
Silent refusal to give senior players preferential treatment was the way to go for an ill-disciplined team where the veterans had previously even had the cheek to decline a substitution.
However, Mtawali was not smart enough in getting the message across to the seniors. The coach did not have the courage to tell the players in the face the reasons they were being dropped from call-ups. At least, that is what all dropped players claimed.
In 15 games and in 10 months, Mtawali was only allowed to play friendly games against Sierra Leone, Mbombela United and Namibia. Clearly the friendlies were not enough.
Going forward, investing in the youth for long-term gains as Angola Football Association has done is the only way to go, but you can be certain that Fam will take the shorter route possible.
They will probably hire another coach on a one-year contract, fire him next year, get another one…on and on….
Cosafa statistics
Results
Malawi 3 Angola 0
Malawi 1 Mauritius 0
Malawi 0 Lesotho 1
Scorers
Gabadinho Mhango 3
Miracle Gabeya 1
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